And I say, `Till when, O Lord?' And He saith, `Surely till cities have been wasted without inhabitant, And houses without man, And the ground be wasted -- a desolation,
Your land `is' a desolation, your cities burnt with fire, Your ground, before you strangers are consuming it, And a desolation as overthrown by strangers!
Surely the palace hath been left, The multitude of the city forsaken, Fort and watch-tower hath been for dens unto the age, A joy of wild asses -- a pasture of herds;
For thus said Jehovah, Concerning the house of the king of Judah: Gilead `art' thou to Me -- head of Lebanon, If not -- I make thee a wilderness, Cities not inhabited.
Gone up hath a lion from his thicket, And a destroyer of nations hath journeyed, He hath come forth from his place To make thy land become a desolation, Thy cities are laid waste, without inhabitant.
`Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: Ye -- ye have seen all the evil that I have brought in on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah, and lo, they `are' a waste this day, and there is none dwelling in them,
In all your dwellings the cities are laid waste, And the high places are desolate, So that waste and desolate are your altars, And broken and ceased have your idols, And cut down have been your images, And blotted out have been your works.
`And I hear a certain holy one speaking, and a certain holy one saith to the wonderful numberer who is speaking: Till when `is' the vision of the continual `sacrifice', and of the transgression, an astonishment, to make both sanctuary and host a treading down?
In that day doth `one' take up for you a simile, And he hath wailed a wailing of wo, He hath said, We have been utterly spoiled, The portion of my people He doth change, How doth He move toward me! To the backslider our fields He apportioneth.
and ye have been left with few men, instead of which ye have been as stars of the heavens for multitude, because thou hast not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah thy God.
`And it hath been, as Jehovah hath rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so doth Jehovah rejoice over you to destroy you, and to lay you waste; and ye have been pulled away from off the ground whither thou art going in to possess it;